Tag Archives: gamasutra

The Year In Review: Game Biz Analysts On The Best Happenings Of 2010

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[Gamasutra asked a half-dozen of the most notable game industry analysts about the best and worst things to happen to the game industry this year — with some intriguing and unexpected responses.]

Wall Street analysts spend most of their time looking forward – trying to predict future trends and events in the video game industry. Rather than having them pull out crystal balls as we inch towards 2011, we thought it would be interesting to ask them to look in their rear view mirrors and give their thoughts on the year that was.

We start on a positive note – looking at the best changes of the year. (The group’s thoughts on what went wrong will run next week.)

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Analysis: Are Spike TV’s VGAs Good For Gaming?

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[Analyzing the weekend’s Spike TV Video Game Awards, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris reveals this year’s dwindling ratings for the show — despite “minimal signs of improvement” in quality and diversity.]

It wouldn’t be the holidays if the gaming world wasn’t in an uproar about U.S. cable channel Spike TV’s Video Game Awards. For the eighth consecutive year, the network has raised the ire of industry gadflys and gamers, who feel the show does more to set back video games than celebrate them.

Ratings for the VGAs are never spectacular. This year’s installment, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, attracted 627,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. That’s 20,000 fewer than last year and marks the fourth consecutive year of declines. Since 2007, ratings for the show have fallen 32 percent.

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Analysis: EA Expands Pogo.com, Looking For A Chance To Digitally Shine

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Gamasutra’s Chris Morris speaks to Michael Marchetti, senior vice president of EA’s casual gaming site Pogo.com about how he intends to “build the base of new players” to add to its 1.5 million active subscribers.

To the outside world, Pogo.com has always seemed like the redheaded stepchild of Electronic Arts. Bought nine years ago, there’s nothing flashy about the site and its core audience isn’t likely to buy a lot of other EA games – well, until the next Simsexpansion pack comes around, anyway.

It’s a consistent moneymaker, however; one that has generally been left to fend for itself. And it’s done quite well. As recently as 2007, in fact, it was handily beating Facebook in terms of time spent by users, according to Compete.com. But the industry is changing fast – and now Pogo.com is being asked to step up its game.

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Interview: Blizzard Co-Founder Pearce On World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm’s Reboot

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[As Cataclysm reboots many areas in World Of Warcraft‘s universe, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris talks to Blizzard co-founder and EVP Frank Pearce about why the early grind in WoW “doesn’t have the best content”, and how the expansion is fixing that.]

Blizzard has always been a collection of perfectionists. But it wasn’t until the impending release of its MMO expansion World of Warcraft: Cataclysm that we saw just how exacting they can be when it come to quality.

The rise of Deathwing the Destroyer in Azeroth, as you surely know by now, isn’t confined to the expansion pack. His eruption from Deepholm has ripped the entire game world asunder – even impacting what new players of the game see and experience.

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Analysts: Retail Game Sales Unlikely To Recover In 2011

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[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris talks to game industry analysts on what 2011 might bring for the struggling Western retail game biz — with predictions of another slump in retail sales that might only be forestalled by the launch of Nintendo’s 3DS, a “primary driver” of any possible retail rebound.]

There’s good news aplenty from gaming companies these days – but as financial analysts begin crunching the numbers for next year, many fear that the holiday cheer could be short-lived.

The shifting business models of the Western video game industry will continue to impact retail sales figures, even with the relatively easy comparables 2010 has established, say many analysts. The good news is that digitally downloaded content should continue to grow – and help make up some of the difference.

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Analysis: The State Of The Nation At Nintendo

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[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris examines the surge in Nintendo’s U.S. sales around Black Friday, and asks whether this holiday season turnaround is enough to influence the company’s slowing growth curve.]

Over the course of the past year, gamers and the gaming press have written Nintendo off as a company in steep decline; hailed it as the savior of the handheld industry; written it off again (a couple of times, in fact); and called it greedy.

With Tuesday’s release of the 2010 Black Friday sales figures, the winds have shifted once again and Nintendo is now being called a powerhouse. The latest moniker is, of course, a temporary one – but it begs the question: exactly what is going on with Nintendo these days?

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Interview: TimeGate’s Chaveleh Takes Control Of His Publishing Destiny

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[Gamasutra catches up with Timegate Studios (Section 8) head Adel Chaveleh as the veteran console game development house growss “tired” of the traditional publisher relationship and strikes out on its own.]

As production costs escalate and the market becomes tighter, independent developers are increasingly finding their options limited.

They can partner with large publishers on a per-game level – but if the publisher has an internally-built title competing in that genre, it often means their games receive a smaller marketing push. They can join the fold, agreeing to an acquisition. Or they can roll the dice and self-publish.

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Interview: Activision’s Hirshberg On Black Ops, Tony Hawk: Shred And More

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Gamasutra’s Chris Morris talks to Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision about why, despite a stronger opening week, the company predicts total sales of Call of Duty: Black Op will fall below those of last year’s Modern Warfare 2.

As Treyarch and Activision’s Call Of Duty: Black Ops continues to smash entertainment industry records, analysts who cover Activision are scrambling to up their year-end sales predictions. At the publisher, though, things haven’t changed.

Despite the fact that Black Ops sales are tracking 18 percent ahead of where Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 was at this point it its life cycle, Activision is still officially estimating that the game’s performance will fall just short of last year’s sales totals.

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In-Depth: Sony Threatens Microsoft’s Non-Gaming Dominance

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[As Sony announces a tie-up with Vudu for HD movie streaming, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks at how the PlayStation 3 creator has started to gain ground on Microsoft’s array of on-console media content — the next big battlefield for game consoles.]

Long before Kinect, Microsoft had its own way of courting the non-gamer – offer functionality on the Xbox 360 that was unique enough to lure in people who weren’t interested in the latest Haloinstallment. And it was a pretty effective method.

With Netflix integration leading the charge in 2008, the Xbox 360 finally fulfilled the dream of the console as a Trojan horse of the living room. It gave the company a huge competitive advantage for a while, but recently that advantage has been slipping away. Sony, in particular, has gained a lot of ground in that battle and is threatening to overshadow Microsoft’s achievements.

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Interview: CEO Farrell On THQ’s Path Through The Changing Game Landscape

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[Gamasutra’s Editor-at-Large Chris Morris spoke to THQ CEO Brian Farrell as the company ramps up its digital distribution business while experimenting with lower price-points for boxed product.]

THQ and the broader video game industry have a lot in common. Both have struggled financially in the past couple of years. Both are seeing their role in the greater entertainment landscape change. And both are seeing the evolution of financial models that have served them well for years.

Leading the charge for those changes at THQ is CEO Brian Farrell. He’s in the unenviable position of leading a company that’s in the midst of what he calls a “turnaround year” – with significant growth not expected to resume until 2012. To get the company to that point, though, he’s throwing out a lot of the industry’s standard practices and he’s raising a few eyebrows in the process.

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